"I have often been called a Nazi, and, although it is unfair, I don't let it bother me. I don't let it bother me for one simple reason. No one has ever had a sexual fantasy about being tied to a bed and ravished by a liberal." PJ O'Rourke, Give War a Chance

Friday, August 02, 2013

Lets all go to Bayreuth!

Martin Kettle writes disparagingly in today's Guardian that British MPs are philistines compared to German ones. Specifically, Angela Merkel and other prominent German politicians flock to the Bayreuth festival:

Their presence was a political affirmation that in Germany the arts matter. It was, in its way, a sign of a healthy civic society. But its equivalent simply would not happen in Britain...There are, of course, exceptions – honourable mention to Labour's Nick Brown, a devoted Bayreuth pilgrim. In general, though, it is a sign of a failed society and a failed culture.

I've noted before the strange (though perfectly understandable) tendency of Guardian journos not to bother reading their own paper, but given that Kettle is a Wagner enthusiast, you'd have thought he remembered this story:

Kettle's argument is, in fact, decidedly odd. Wagner is very much a minority taste in Britain (hell, opera is a minority taste, and Wagner a minority of that minority). Probably the single demographic most over-represented with Wagnerians is Conservative politicians (and bloggers, obviously). And far from being seen as a sign of a healthy civic society, what is the reaction of the left (well, the BBC, but the terms are more or less synonymous here) to Tories at the opera?

Take the visit by Messrs Gove, Osborne and Ed Vaizey to the Royal Opera House in
London the other week, to listen to Wagner.
This was a story not because of their Germanic musical tastes, but because it
fuelled a perception of top Tories swanning around at an elitist cultural event
- well beyond the pockets of the toiling masses.

Kettle has written a piece bemoaning the cultural philistinism of the political classes, but has chosen a more or less unimprovable example of the philistinism of the media when confronted with precisely the sort of culturally aware politicians he calls for.